Newbies Guide To Hacking III

Remote Access
by euDaemon
euDaemon@email.ro
The Liberation of Information Specialist Team
L_I_S_T@email.ro

Disclaimer (I have to do this so that I don't get into trouble): We, whoever we are at the current time, are not responsible for your actions as the result of anything, especially such things that pertain to this site. If your ignorance of local, state, and/or federal laws pertaining to anything mentioned to or hinted at by us lands you in a position you don't like (i.e prison, jail, or the liable end of a lawsuit), remember that it is not L.I.S.T., it's members, God's, Jesus's, Allah's, Jehovah's, or anybody else's responsibility but your own. We didn't make you do anything, nor would we. It is also the intention of this disclaimer that we hold to, not it's exact wording: if you think there's a legal loophole that you've found that holds us liable for you're actions, you're most likely right. However it is the spirit of this disclaimer that should be followed.

This text file will deal with remote computers (computers that you do not have physical access to). You will learn to use programs that will tell you such information as how long it takes for your computer to communicate with another one and what other computers your computer communicates with in order to communicate with the one you want to.

Okay, now that you are a hacker, I'm going to teach you how to log on to other computers from the one your sitting at right now. What you need: a computer (I assume you have one because you're reading this), a modem or network connection (I also assume you have one of those because you're reading this), and a program called telnet. What? You don't have telnet? Or so you thought. Telnet is a program that comes with a Windows 9x computer, but Microsoft doesn't tell you about it.

Telnet is pretty simple to run. One way is to click on Run from the Start menu, then type in "telnet". Or, you can go to the MS-DOS prompt and do it from there. I prefer the MS-DOS prompt simply because there are other things that you might need to do that you can't do from Windows, and it's convenient to already have it open.

Okay, you should have telnet open by now. Go to Connect, then to Remote System. It now asks for a host name, a port, and termtype. For now, we're just concerned with the host name. type in "nic.ddn.mil", and click on Connect. But wait just a damn minute! Isn't that a military computer I'm telling you to log on to? What am I, crazy? But don't worry. nic.ddn.mil is open to the public on port 23 (the telnet port; the port you're logged onto right now). More on ports later. Okay, now you're working in Unix. Unix is an operating system that is similar to DOS; in fact, early versions of DOS included much of Unix's code. Now, I sense that most of you don't know what the hell to do in Unix. Well, here's some commands to get you started:

pwd                 Displays the current working directory
ls                 Lists the contents of the current directory
cd [dir]            Change directory ("dir .." moves up a directory)
cp [path/file] [path2/file2]    Copy file (notice that the slashes are forward)
mv [path/file] [path2/file2]    Move file
rm [path/file]            Remove file
cat [path/file]            Displays file contents
mkdir [dir]            Make directory
man                 Online manual, also try "help" and "?"

That should be enough to get you started. I'll tell you right now that Unix is a very cryptic OS. It was designed for people who knew what they were doing and to be efficient, so it is not very user-friendly. I also wouldn't try moving or deleting files unless you have an account on the system that you're working in. Take some time to become familiar with Unix. Unix is the preferred operating system of hackers, and is (or was, anyway) the most widespread OS on the Net.

Now, try a "whois" command. At the Unix prompt, type in "whois navy.mil". You should see something like this:

    Navy (NAVY-DOM)
    NCTAMS LANT DET HAMPTON ROADS
    7927 Ingersol St.
    Norfolk, VA 23551


    Domain Name: NAVY.MIL
    PLA: [None specified]

    Technical Contact:
    Defere, Herbert G. [Telecommunications Technician] (HGD)
    (757) 836-5700 (DSN) (312) 836-5700 (FAX)(757) 836-5003
    REGISTRAR@DNSADMIN.UAR.NAVY.MIL, HDEFERE@NTCC.UAR.NAVY.MIL
    Administrative Contact:
    Hanson, Scott C. [TELECOMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST] (SCH)
    (757) 836-5004 (DSN) 836-5004 (FAX)(757) 836-5003
    HOSTMASTER@DNSADMIN.UAR.NAVY.MIL, SHANSON@NTCC.UAR.NAVY.MIL

    Record last updated on 26-Aug-98.

    Domain servers in listed order:

    NS-NORVA.NAVY.MIL 205.56.138.34
    NS-HAWAII.NAVY.MIL 138.183.200.2
    NS-NORFOLK.NAVY.MIL 138.143.200.2
    NS-SANDIEGO.NAVY.MIL 138.140.200.2

and maybe some other crap. If you wanted, you could call one of those phone numbers and try to SE a password out of them, but I wouldn't recommend it, especially at a government site. The four lines at the bottom are servers for that domain name, and to the right of them are their IP addresses. To connect to one of them, you can type in either one as the host name. This is one way to find servers.

Okay, back to the DOS prompt. Now, try typing ping whitehouse.gov. You should see something like this:

    Pinging whitehouse.gov [198.137.241.30] with 32 bytes of data:

    Reply from 198.137.241.30: bytes=32 time=89ms TTL=239
    Reply from 198.137.241.30: bytes=32 time=90ms TTL=239
    Reply from 198.137.241.30: bytes=32 time=88ms TTL=239
    Reply from 198.137.241.30: bytes=32 time=87ms TTL=239

    Ping statistics for 198.137.241.30:
        Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
    Approximate round trip time in milli-seconds:
        Minimum = 87ms, Maximum = 90ms, Average = 88ms

This is pretty self-explanatory. Ping times the time, in milliseconds, from when your computer sends a packet until when it receives on back. Now, try a traceroute. Type in "tracert www.nasa.gov" You should see something like this:

    Tracing route to www.nsi.nasa.gov [198.116.116.10]
    over a maximum of 30 hops:

    [I deleted these to keep my location somewhat anonymous]

    13 20 ms 21 ms 23 ms ames1.mae-west.nasa.gov [198.32.136.43]
    14 76 ms 75 ms 74 ms s-GSFC12-ATM.NSN.NASA.GOV [128.161.10.2]
    15 74 ms 73 ms 75 ms rtr-hq.gsfc.nasa.gov [192.43.240.58]
    16 73 ms 72 ms 74 ms www.nsi.nasa.gov [198.116.116.10]

    Trace complete.

Now, this tells you exactly what servers you communicate through to reach www.nasa.gov. This is also a way to find servers, and if you're smart, you've figured out that it's a pretty good one because they're open on at least one port for you to communicate with them. Which reminds me, I haven't told you poor bastards what a port is yet. Well, a port is a way to get information into or out of a computer. On your computer at home, you have parallel and serial ports on the back of your computer. Some other ports are the keyboard, monitor, and modem. But on a server, we're dealing with virtual ports, not physical ports. There can literally be thousands on a single machine.

You can try to log onto these ports from telnet. Searching for open ports is called "port surfing." You can do this by hand, as I prefer to do, or you can find a program that'll do it for you like the rest of those lazy bastards out there. Happy hacking, and remember, if you get busted, it's your own damn fault, not mine.

The secret to great hacking is an open mind.

-eD